Jesus Said

Jesus made a wonderful promise:

"If you will confess me before people, I will confess you before my Father in heaven" -Mat 10:32.

The Cross

Before there was ever a mountain on earth, yea, even before the earth was created, God appointed Jesus Christ to be the Person of the Godhead who would come into the earth, live, suffer, shed his blood, and die, to make atonement for those given to him in the covenant of grace. Peter affirms that he is the spotless Lamb who was "foreordained before the foundation of the world" (I Pet. 1:18-20).

He is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" and there has never been a time when his blood was without the power to save. His blood was not actually shed until the human family was at least 4,000 years old. But, because of the Divine ordination of his suffering and shedding his blood, it was as though it was already shed. I have said and have heard others say, "Men were saved on the credit before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ." The very fact that God had purposed and ordained that his blood be shed was enough for it to have the power to save even before he came and actually died.

I am reminded of those familiar and wonderful words of John the Baptist.

"Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."